Ye have made a fine hand, fellows.
Shak.
Fine is often compounded with participles and adjectives, modifying
them adverbially; a, fine-drawn, fine-featured, fine-grained,
fine-spoken, fine-spun, etc.
Fine arch (Glass Making), the smaller fritting furnace of a glasshouse.
Knight. -- Fine arts. See the Note under Art. -- Fine cut, fine cut
tobacco; a kind of chewing tobacco cut up into shreds. -- Fine goods,
woven fabrics of fine texture and quality. McElrath. -- Fine stuff,
lime, or a mixture of lime, plaster, etc., used as material for the
finishing coat in plastering. -- To sail fine (Naut.), to sail as close
to the wind as possible.
Syn. -- Fine, Beautiful. When used as a word of praise, fine (being
opposed to coarse) denotes no "ordinary thing of its kind." It is not
as strong as beautiful, in reference to the single attribute implied in
the latter term; but when we speak of a fine woman, we include a
greater variety of particulars, viz., all the qualities which become a
woman, -- breeding, sentiment, tact, etc. The term is equally
comprehensive when we speak of a fine garden, landscape, horse, poem,
etc.; and, though applied to a great variety of objects, the word has
still a very definite sense, denoting a high degree of characteristic
excellence.
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Fine, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Fined (fnd); p. pr. & vb. n. Fining.] [From
Fine, a.] 1. To make fine; to refine; to purify, to clarify; as, to
fine gold.
It hath been fined and refined by . . . learned men.
Hobbes.
2. To make finer, or less coarse, as in bulk, texture, etc.; as. to
fine the soil. L. H. Bailey.
3. To change by fine gradations; as (Naut.), to fine down a ship's
lines, to diminish her lines gradually.
I often sate at home On evenings, watching how they fined
themselves With gradual conscience to a perfect night.
Browning.
Fine (?), n. [OE. fin, L. finis end, also in LL., a final agreement or
concord between the lord and his vassal; a sum of money paid at the
end, so as to make an end of a transaction, suit, or prosecution;
mulct; penalty; cf. OF. fin end, settlement, F. fin end. See Finish,
and cf. Finance.] 1. End; conclusion; termination; extinction. [Obs.]
"To see their fatal fine." Spenser.
Is this the fine of his fines?
Shak.
2. A sum of money paid as the settlement of a claim, or by way of
terminating a matter in dispute; especially, a payment of money imposed
upon a party as a punishment for an offense; a mulct.
3. (Law) (a) (Feudal Law) A final agreement concerning lands or rents
between persons, as the lord and his vassal. Spelman.
(b) (Eng. Law) A sum of money or price paid for obtaining a benefit,
favor, or privilege, as for admission to a copyhold, or for obtaining
or renewing a lease.
Fine for alienation (Feudal Law), a sum of money paid to the lord by a
tenant whenever he had occasion to make over his land to another.
Burrill. -- Fine of lands, a species of conveyance in the form of a
fictitious suit compromised or terminated by the acknowledgment of the
previous owner that such land was the right of the other party.
Burrill. See Concord, n., 4. -- In fine, in conclusion; by way of
termination or summing up.
Fine, v. t. [From Fine, n.] To impose a pecuniary penalty upon for an
offense or breach of law; to set a fine on by judgment of a court; to
punish by fine; to mulct; as, the trespassers were fined ten dollars.